Electronic documents such as word processing documents and spreadsheet documents typically include semantic information that would be helpful if the information was recognized as such. Recognition and use of this semantic information could result in increased interoperability between desktop software applications and other desktop applications and/or web-based applications.
The ability to recognize strings of text, such as in search engines, is well-known. Additionally, various information retrieval systems have capabilities to label documents. For example, the LEXIS-NEXIS service provides links in some of its documents for company names, famous people and stock ticker symbols.
However, none of the services described above allow strings of text to be labeled with semantic information on-the-fly, i.e., as a user is typing text into a document and creating a document. Thus, there is a need for a method and system for semantically labeling strings while a user is creating a document and providing user actions based on the type of semantic label applied to the string. There is further a need for application program interfaces (API) for labeling strings while a user is creating a document and providing user actions based on the type of semantic label applied to the string.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.